IN MEMORIAM...Coretta Scott KingThere is a spirit and a need and a man at the beginning of every great human advance. Every one of these must be right for that particular moment of history, or nothing happens.---Coretta Scott King

It is stunning that on the day of the State of the Union address is to take place and Judge Alito is confirmed that it is also the day that Mrs. Coretta Scott King passes. The news comes with a jolting irony. For today is a sad day for our nation and for the dismal leadership example it demonstrates for other leaders, our children and the world. It is not that Judge Alito is not a highly qualified candidate. Those who have hung their hats on this issue, missed the point. The price is far greater than one qualified candidate. It is a both a loss and a call to move into action again. As I have written before, what is shameful is that the best the "leader of the free world" could do in looking at the diversity of talent in this country is to place TWO white males on the highest court of the land, setting progress back decades with sweeping implications on the most vulnerable in this country. Even more shameful was watching the majority of the Congress and Senate succumb to political pressures without the courage to even recognize this failure of leadership, nor the fortitude to stand up for something better.

Changing things for the good of all people requires personal leadership from more than one leader. Rosa Parks reflected on this herself. She wrote in her book Quiet Strength:

"Many people do not know the whole truth; I would like them to know I was not the only person involved. I was just one of many who fought for freedom. And many others around me began to want to fight for their rights as well.

At the time, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was emerging on the scene. He once said, "If you will protest courageously and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say: there lived a great people---a black people---who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization." It was these words that guided many of us as we faced the trials and tribulations of fighting for our rights."

Today, perhaps in quiet sorrow, our nation's heart breaks for leaders who have not had the conviction to reach beyond their empty rehtoric to carry on the promise of inclusion --- to pick up the torch and continue to bring "new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization". Today, our leaders let us down. The process let us down. ...and all of us, many of us, may not have even noticed.

The journey will continue not in words, but in actions by millions of people who believe there is something better for all people than we see in this nation today and across the world. The courage to carry on comes from the role models we still have today that remind us, it is a long walk to freedom...

"...I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities... For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. --- Nelson Mandela

Women of the world are uniting to share their loud voice against the war. Eminent women writers, artists, business leaders and social activists are reaching out to women leaders throughout the world to form a global alliance against the US-led war. Their goal is to deliver 100,000 signatures to the White House and US Embassies around the world by March 8, International Women's Day.

"We are unleashing a global chorus of women's voices shouting, 'Enough!" said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, a California-based rights advocacy group that has spearheaded the global women's campaign, called "Women Say No to War".

THE MESSAGE: "We, the women of the United States, Iraq, and women worldwide, have had enough of the senseless war in Iraq and cruel attack on civilians worldwide," reads the call. "We have buried too many of our loved ones. We have seen too many lives crippled forever...."

"This is not the world we want for ourselves or for our children," it says. "With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are rising up -- across borders -- to unite and demand an end to the bloodshed and destruction."

WOMEN OF IRAQ SPEAK TOO!"Iraqi women are devastated now. It will take us decades of struggle to regain a peaceful and civilised life," said Yanar Mohammed, a signatory to the campaign and president of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq.

"The U.S. occupation has planted the seeds of ethno-sectarian division, preparing Iraq for a civil war, and has blessed religious supremacy over and against human and women's rights," she added in a statement.

Since the invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition forces, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, have lost their lives. Despite criticism from influential human rights groups, such as the Britain-based Amnesty International and U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, the U.S. military continues to shrug off its responsibility to keep a record of civilian casualties, critics note. However, an independent survey conducted by the British medical journal, the Lancet, last year concluded that the war has claimed at least 100,000 civilian lives in Iraq. Learn more about Civilian Casualties in IRAQ

This is a new year of changing consciousness. There are many signs. CODE PINK is another. We salute your courage to stand up!

"...How many deaths will it take before too many people have died? ---Bob Dylan

It's hard to believe that one would think of George Bush, Samuel Alito and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the same moment. Let's face it, their dreams for America and the world by all accounts, actions and professed beliefs are markedly different. However, after listening to the useless and futile questioning of Alito at the Senate hearings last week, as well as the pundits on all the Sunday shows, it is astounding that such bright, intelligent people have again been hoodwinked, duped, deceived and diverted from the real truth that glares from this nomination of BUSH Supreme Court Nominee.

The the failing here is in fact about GEORGE BUSH's leadership...again. Why hasn't anyone noticed? There is no question that Samuel Alito is qualified for the position and that he is notably the conservative nominee for the Supreme Court the far right has longed for. However, what has seemed to slip our attention is the BUSH Regime's well-orchestrated move to put still another one over on us quite by design I suppose.

When Rosa Parks died, I could see the writing on the walls and wrote about it. Now on the eve of the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King's birth with the news assuring us Alito will be confirmed, the TRUTH confronts us. How can it be in 2006 that we are satisfied with the performance and leadership of a president who chooses to ignore our racially diverse country with 293,655,404 people with 31 ethnic groups and 50.9% women in the United States. Why is it that we are so willing to allow the court's make-up to be set back decades by accepting that the best BUSH could do in finding a nominee was to choose not one, but two white male candidates and Harriet Myers. How did those serving our country miss this critical decision point in their examination???

One might think this doesn't matter, but as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. told us "It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality." So, the crime is not in whether Democrats asked the wrong questions or Republicans had a fit about it. It is the inescapable implications of this far-reaching decision that will play out in the years ahead that was allowed to slip through because we missed the point.

I ran across a quote I saved "See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." - President George W. Bush, Rochester, N.Y., May 24, 2005.

This quote gives great insight into spin in recent weeks over the NSA presidential law-breaking. It's also notable that the on December 17, 2005 Bush used the "blame the messenger" tactic, a key strategy, when he said in his Saturday Address, "Yesterday the existence of this secret program was revealed in media reports, after being improperly provided to news organizations. As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk."

Hmmmm! interesting, but what about President BUSH's improper behavior and actions that caused this leak in the first place. How about the US media turning its head related to the widely publicized outside the U.S. facts that the Bush administration used the NSA to spy on U. N. diplomats in New York before the invasion of Iraq. In an article by Noman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, he validates that no, we're not crazy if you remember the storiesm that never took root here in the US in 2003. The article is worth the read:

"That spying had nothing to do with protecting the United States from a terrorist attack. The entire purpose of the NSA surveillance was to help the White House gain leverage, by whatever means possible, for a resolution in the U.N. Security Council to green light an invasion. When that surveillance was exposed nearly three years ago, the mainstream U.S. media winked at Bush's illegal use of the NSA for his Iraq invasion agenda."

I am baffled by three things:

1) Why the BUSH administration is incapable of TELLING THE TRUTH and TAKING RESPONSIBILITY for its actions and behavior?

2) Why President BUSH and multiple members of his administration are allowed to operate above the law?

3) Why do we put up with it?

I wish I knew. When you talk to people, most don't even know about the NSA situation or any of the other long-series of improper leadership, other than what they've heard in a sound byte. The media runs from one story of distraction to another and somehow seems to downplay the truth about the stories that are really vital to our security. Even more, who cares? We're all so consumed in our lives and comforts. BUSH's propaganda spin machine works on to shape our thinking, believing and inaction. As BUSH said, he needs to "keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in" Sadly, it appears in many venues to be working.

In the meantime, I recommit myself to tell the truth, pay attention and do what I can do in my span of influence to sound the bell for change and civic involvement.

I am delayed in writing for the New Year not because there wasn't anything to write about but because so much of it puts a glaring spotlight on the failed leadership of the BUSH administration that it seemed important to at least think things through first. Let me say again first, I grew up loving this country and I am very grateful for all it has afforded me and my family. I do care about it, perhaps more than ever before. Even more, in its distresses, I have recognized that I care even more about our human family throughout the world and the health of our planet. Writing about BUSH in particular, or any of his cronies, just hasn’t been the way I wanted to start a new year. The words that come to mind when I think about the mess that has been manifested through the BUSH regime are disappointing, discouraging, disheartening, disgusting and shameful. It is clear these are not feelings that one needs to make a productive contribution to change what stands before all of us. So I waited to find a message that might lead somewhere and give more power to the possibilities than to the perpetrators.

The process of reflection led me to see I have shared many opinions and some insightful thinking from what I’ve learned in life and through others. Here is a sampling…

This past year has been one of awakening. Others tell me that things have always been this way. Politics is dirty. Perhaps. Maybe and I was too blind to see it. What seems clear at this juncture is that we are a nation drowning in low expectations. Low expectations of ourselves ---- we sit in our comforts, shopping bags full, TV’s blasting, so consumed and brainwashed by sound bytes that we’ve lost our way and we sit in crisis to find the meaning in this life. Low expectations from our leadership --- it is hard to believe we sit helpless as our hard-earned money pays the salaries of people with significant indictments allowed to continue to stay in the highest levels of leadership. Right and wrong; truth and lying, ethics and corruption do not need courts or judges. They need leaders of integrity and high expectations from the people electing them. We aren’t pawns. Only by choice.

The real tragedy in the BUSH regime is that there is a hole in the system that allows for anyone to continue in office with such poor “results achieved.” In a corporation, he would have been down a long time ago for the debacle his self-proclaimed war vision, policies and practices have created. There is great TRUTH in “What you SOW, you REAP.” This regime has sown seeds of war, dishonesty, injustice, greed, disregard and disrespect and we are reaping its harvest.

This has to be a year when we all rise up to get involved. Say NO MORE with our votes and our voices. We have to say NO with our actions and behavior in all aspects of our lives. We have to accept responsibility for restoring ---- or if it was never there as some as some say and believe --- then work to make this a nation of HONOR. As President Roosevelt envisioned, a nation known as the “good neighbor” --- who respects itself and in turn, respects others.

The heaviest penalty for deciding NOT to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.---Plato